In late October 2015, I wrote about Andy Warhol when Byron told me Warhol is often considered the most important Twentieth Century artist. I don’t care for Warhol’s work, repeatedly walk right by it in museums. It seems shallow and elementary, and now that I think about this again, I remember concluding at the time, that greatness in Warhol’s work might lie only if he was reflecting a shallow and garish culture.
I haven’t, up until now, taken that subject further. Larry Tolle commented on that earlier post this way. It is Picasso who’s collective work consistently pops and makes you pay attention to his mastery.
I remembered Larry’s comment, and my failed attempts to write about Picasso at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on Sunday afternoon when we saw the current Picasso/Rivera Exhibition on display there. Minotauromachie, seen below, is referred to in the museum’s description as the most important, “work on paper from the Twentieth Century,” a fact which gives credibility to the claim for Picasso as that century’s greatest artist.
Minotauromachy, Etching by Pablo Picasso, 1935 (19 7/16 x 27 3/16 in.)
Guernica by Pablo Picasso, 1937
Minotauromachie is cited as inspiration for Picasso’s great painting, Guernica, a response to the violent and deadly bombing of that city during the Spanish Revolution. I’ve never seen Guernica in person. But, even though I understand the symbolism, as it is usually described, the painting has never moved me much. I found that smaller, paper etching very powerful and moving.
But, two small pieces included in a group of drawings on loan from a private collection made me gasp when I saw them.
Minotaur Caressing the Hand of a Sleeping Woman with His Muzzle, June 18, 1933
According to the material provided by the museum, Picasso identified with the Minotaur as a character of complex emotions, driven by aggressive lust, and sorrow. He once remarked: “If all the ways I have been along were marked on a map and joined up with a line, it might represent a Minotaur.”
Art - As I See It 
I need to be careful what I write. I like your comment on the world culture Warhol’s work represents as you continue to define that struggle of what does Art represent—–individually—collectively. Please keep sharing your journey.